Southside Oracle Archive

Vol. 50, No. l__________SOUTHSIDE ORACLE__________March 2 2007

Elder Search

            The elders of the church are asking our members for nominations for additional shepherds. The congregation is now served by only four elders - Wayne Alexander, A1 Gray, Monroe Hawley, and Bruce Williams. Nomination forms were passed out Sunday, but because of the small attendance due to weather, many did not get one. Be sure to pick one up Sunday. Nominations should be based on the biblical qualifications given in Titus 1:5-9 and 1 Timothy 3:1-7. Fill out a form and give it to one of the elders or Daryl Miller by March 25th. Those for whom there is a consensus to serve will be asked to see if they are willing to do so. If so, their names will be presented to the church for approval before being installed as elders.

The Bulletin Board

            With this issue the Southside Oracle begins its 50th year. Southside first met on March 2, 1958, which means that next year at this time we will celebrate our 50th anniversary. All of the Oracle issues are in bound form in the church library.

            The big news last Sunday was the huge snowstorm that cut our attendance more than half. Because we are scattered in more than six counties, many were unable to join us for worship. Southside has never canceled Sunday services due to weather.

ATTENDANCE RECORD

(*) first service, 43: second service, 56

            The sick - Suzanne Roberts was scheduled Wednesday to have a cochlear implant to give her hearing .... Nina Miller's sister, Mimi Morrison and her husband, Tom, were in a very serious auto accident last week, but both are now home .... Julia Hawley is doing well after carpal tunnel surgery last Friday .... Raehael Valentine had an emergency appendectomy in Tucson, AZ last week and is doing well.

            Monroe Hawley will preach Sunday morning and Daryl Miller in the evening.

            Men's breakfast Saturday was attended by forty-five, not bad considering the snowstorm at the time. Keith Brumley from Northtown spoke.

            Eight from Southside attended the Appleton youth rally last weekend.

            Rick Odell of Littleton, CO will be the speaker at our youth rally March 16 -18. We will be soliciting help in housing and other ways for those who are visiting from elsewhere.

Calendar of Events

March 11- Praise and Palate, 6:00 p.m.

March 16, 17 - Southside Youth Rally

March 20 - Christian Workers' Meeting, 9:00 a.m.

March 31 - Hearts and Minds Seminar, 9:30 - 3:00 p. m

May 11- Mother/Daughter Banquet, 6:30 p.m..

Preserving the Old Testament

(Fourth in a Series)

            The Old Testament books were written in Hebrew, except for small portions in Aramaic. None of the original writings of either testament has survived to the present, but numerous copies in the original tongues have been preserved.

            Strangely, until a few years ago the oldest known copies of the Old Testament dated only from the 8^th century A.D. The reason relates to the Masoretes, a group of Jewish scribes who began making copies of these books around 500 A.D. They developed a system of vowel and accent markings for the Hebrew Bible that originally had no written vowels.

            The Masoretes were very careful copiers, numbering the verses, words, and letters of each book, and calculating the middle word, and middle letter of each. This insured the accuracy of the texts with which they were working. However, after making a copy they would systematically destroy the manuscript from which they copied. This is why most of the copies of the Old Testament books in Hebrew are so late.

            However, in 1948 a large number of manuscripts and fragments were discovered hidden in caves overlooking the Dead Sea. This was the library of some of the ancient Essenes, a sect dating from the time of Jesus. The books had been hidden to secrete them from enemies. Among the scrolls were portions of every Old Testament book except Esther as well as many other ancient documents. They date from about 100 B.C. to about 100 A.D., roughly the time of Jesus. The most important scrolls were two copies of the book of Isaiah, one of them almost complete.

            At the time the Dead Sea Scrolls were found the translators of the Revised Standard Version, Old Testament, had almost finished their work. They quickly compared the Masoretic text from which they were working with the Isaiah manuscripts. They found amazing agreement between the two texts, and on the basis of the Isaiah Dead Sea Scrolls made only a very few changes in translating the book.

            For us the significance is that the Masoretes were so careful in copying the Hebrew Bible that they had reproduced their copies with amazing accuracy. It is strong confirmation for us that we have the Old Testament books in substantially the same form as that in which they were written.

Monroe Hawley

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